Screwed by Airbnb again? Here’s an alternative!

It seems like Airbnb is becoming a more and more faggoty company by the day and that they are taking ever large pieces of the pie. I just wrote a rant about some of their scams a couple of weeks ago and now I have new one! Recently a friend of mine with 10+ references and 30+ positive reviews had his Airbnb account deleted without warning just because he told off a nosey perspective host. The host was asking him all kinds of intrusive questions about what his job is and what he was going to be doing on his trip and he told them “None of your fucking business,” and for that Airbnb axed him. What a faggoty thing to do. So much for standing up for your customers that have paid you thousands of dollars over the years. And also fuck these Airbnb faggot hosts that think that just because you are using them as a hotel alternative that they have a right to know your personal business, especially when you have years worth of positive reviews and references. I wish I could link right to the properties belonging to these assholes but my friend didn’t want to divulge that info, it goes without saying that they must have whined and cried to Airbnb.

Anyway, here’s a couple things you can do to fight back should something like this happen to you or if you just don’t feel like getting screwed out of 20%+. First you could just use VRBO.com (aka HomeAway.com). They have a decent site, a decent app and a lot of listings, many of which are more reasonably priced than Airbnb. The best part is they let you get in direct contact with the property owner and negotiate whatever kind of price and payment terms you want, whereas Airbnb strictly controls the entire process and skims off over 20% of the total transaction amount plus a 3% currency conversion fee if applicable. That’s a pretty big ass-raping to take in exchange for them just serving the function of a “fancy Craig’s List.” VRBO.com on the other hand is totally free market about it, they let you make whatever kind of deal you are comfortable, on whatever kind of terms you like. My buddy was able to get hooked up with a better property, closer to the city center and for about 20% less than Airbnb (surprise!).

It’s a topic for an entire rant of it’s own but I’m getting really sick and tired of these monopolistic players that dominate entire markets that really should have no particular entry barrier and then price gouge the shit out of everyone. Let’s do our part to level the playing field and support any competitors to Airbnb that we can. Five percent would be a more than fair price to collect for what they do, not 23%+, fuck that! What happened to using technology to increase efficiency and make things cheaper for everyone. Airbnb might have been a novel idea years ago but nowadays I’m pretty sure two grown adults do not need some shitty middle man siphoning nearly 25% of the value out of a transaction in order to set up a home rental online.

Before you switch off Airbnb entirely though, I want to give you an idea for a parting shot you can take at them:

Invite a “friend” to create a new account so that they get $25 credit and you get $25 credit

Make a fake listing that’s cheap but will add up to just more than $75 for two days

Have the new account book your new listing and you will earn $75 more in credits/li>

You should net over $100 in credits even after Airbnb fees and a Paypal reaming (if applicable)

Enjoy, repeat often and suggest it to others

Be sure that you use Tor or some kind of proxy solution so that Airbnb doesn’t catch on. They have some weasels in their office that monitor for this kind of thing but as long as you don’t do anything too stupid they’re never going to find out.